Lies
by xXxTylerxXx
Summary: Kyuubi returns to Arizona for reasons unknown. There he meets Itachi whom is not who he seems. Together they unfurl the dark secrets of quiet Arizona.
1. Prologue

_**I don't own Naruto! Happy now!**_

_**Prologue**_

_**Eight months ealier . . .**_

**Kyuubi Lancaster sat in the cafe of a large bookstore in Phoenix, Arizona, waiting for the half brother he had never met. A chaotic mix of anticipation, anxiety, longing and uncertainty churned his insides to such an extent that he could not drink the green tea he had ordered.**

**Even if he had not seen photographs and read articles about Naruto Glazebrook and his wealthy, influential family in the Arizona newspapers and house-and-garden magazines, he would have recognized him the moment he walked through the door.**

**It certaintly wasn't because there was much in the way of family resemblance, Kyuubi thought. At six feet four and a half, he was accustomed to having to look down, not only to most women but to many men as well. He was aware that, like Napoleon, he sometimes tended to overcompensate.**

**Friends and those who were fond of him called him fierce. Those who were not friends tended to go for other descriptors: difficult, stubborn, assertive and bossy. On occasion the words "bastard" and "ballbuster" had been used, often by men who had discovered the hard way that he was not as easy to get into bed as they had assumed.**

**Naruto was his polar opposite: short and skinny with a nest of sunrays, challenging the desert sun and a distinct touch of a very expensive salon. His features had a lovely tan, and patrician symmetry that gave him an elegant/rogue profile.**

**But what one noticed most of all was his style. His half brother did not have merely good taste in clothes, jewelry and accessories Kyuubi thought, he had **_**exquisite **_**taste. He knew the precise colors to wear to enhance his natural good looks, and he had an unerring eye when it came to detail.**

**Until his recent marriage to Kabuto McAllister(a/n In my world men have a right to marry), Naruto had been one of the most successful interior designers in the Southwest. Things had changed dramatically in the past few months. The once thriving business had fallen apart.**

**Naruto hesitated briefly in the doorway of the cafe, searching the crowd. Kyuubi started to raise a hand to get his attention. there was no reason why Naruto should recognize him. After all, he had never had his work featured in glossy, high-end magazines and he'd certainly never had his wedding photographed for the society pages of a newspaper. He'd never had a wedding. But that was another issue.**

**To his amazement, Naruto stopped scanning the room the instant he noticed Kyuubi sitting in the corner. He started through the maze of tables.**

_**My brother,**_** Kyuubi thought. **_**He knows me, just as I would have known him, even if I had never seen a photograph.**_

**When Naruto drew closer Kyuubi saw the barely veiled terror shimmering in his deep, blue eyes. **

**"Thank God you came," Naruto whispered. A squeeze toy he carried shook a little in his tightly clutched fingers.**

**Kyuubi's anxiety and uncertainty vanished in a heartbeat. He was on his feet, hugging Naruto as if they had known each other all their lives.**

**"It's all right," he said. "It's going to be okay."**

**"No, it's not," Naruto whispered, tears drowning the words. "He's going to kill me. They all say he's the perfect husband."**

**"I believe you," Kyuubi said.**


	2. Chapter 1

_Hope you'll enjoy! I don't own anything._

**Chapter One**

**Itachi Salter was standing in the shadows at the far end of the veranda, all his senses-normal and paranormal-open to the desert night, when he felt the hair stir on the nape of his neck. It was the fisrt warning he had that something was about to put his entire, carefully laid strategy in jeopardy.**

**The hunter in him knew better than to ignore th disturbing sensation.**

**The ominous indicator took the shape of a small, nondescript compact car turning into the crowded driveway of the Glazebrook house.**

**Something wicked this way comes. Or something very, very interesting. In his experience, the two often went together.**

**"It looks like we have a late arrival," Tyrra Glazebrook said. "I can't imagine who it is. I'm pretty sure that everyone who was invited tonight is already here or sent regrets."**

**Itachi watched the little compact crawl slowly forward. The driver was searching for a place amid the array f expensive sedans, heavy SUV's and limos that littered the drive. Like a rabbit approaching a desert watering hole that had already attracted alot of mounatin lions.**

_**Good luck**_**, Itachi thought.**

**There was no space left in the wide, circular court that fronted the big house. The Glazebrooks were entertaing this evening. Arashi and Tyrra Glazebrook called their annual July cocktail gala the Desert Rats Party. This evening, everyone who was anyone in the affluent community of Stone Canyon, Arizona, who had not fled the merciless summer heat for cooler climes was here.**

**"Must be someone from the caterer's staff," Tyrra said. She watched the compact with growing disapproval.**

**The little car finished one complete circle of the drive without finding a place to alight. Undaunted, it scurried around for a second attempt.**

**Tyrra's jaw firmed. "The caterer's people were told to park at the back of the house. they're not suppose to take up space in the front. That's for guests."**

**"Maybe this particular member of the staff didn't get the word," Itachi said.**

**The compact was sweeping toward them again, headlights bouncing off the gleaming fenders of larger vehicles. Itachi was sure now that the driver was not going to give up.**

**"Sooner or later he's going to realize that there is no room left in the drive," Tyrra said. "He'll have to go around to the back."**

_**Don't bet on it**_**, Itachi thought. There was something very determined about the manner in which the driver was searching for a parking space.**

**The compact abruptly came to a defiant halt directly behind a sleek silver-gray BMW.**

_**Out of all the cars here tonight, you had to pick that one to block**_**, Itachi thought. What are the odds?**

**The part of him that he did not advertise to the world -the not-quite-normal part- was still running hot, which meant he was flooded with parasensory input in addition to the information collected by his normal senses. When he was hot, data came to him across a spectrum of energy and wavelengths that extended into the paranormal zones. He was aware of the wild, intoxicating scents and the soft sounds of the desert night in a way he would not have been if he were to close down he parasensitive side of himself. And his hunter's intuition was operating at full capacity.**

**"He certaintly can't park there," Tyrra said sharply. She looked down the veranda. "Where is the attendant who was hired to handle parking this evening?"**

**"Saw him go around to the back a few minutes ago," Itachi said. "Probably had to take a quick break. I can take care of this for you."**

_**Oh, yeah. I want to handle this**_**.**

**"No, that's all right, I'd better deal with it," Tyrra said. "There's always the possibility that it's someone who was accidentally left off the guest list. Once in a while that happens. Excuse me, Itachi."**

**Tyrra went briskly toward the veranda entrance, fashionable high-heeled sandals clicking on the tiles.**

**Itachi clamped down on his eager senses. **_**Try to act normal here**_**. He could do that fairly well most of the time. He had learned long ago that people, especially those who possessed a measure of psychic ability and who understood exactly what he was, got nervous when he didn't. Others, which included the majority of the population-most of whom would never admit to believing in the paranormal-simply became uneasy for reasons they could not explain. He wondered which group the new arrival fell into.**

**He leaned against the railing, absently swirling the whiskey that he had not touched all evening. He wasn't here tonight to relax and enjoy the hospitality. He was here to gather information with all his senses. Later he would go hunting.**

**The door of the compact popped open. A figure emerged from behind the wheel. The newcomer was indeed a man. He was not dressed in the uniform that the other members of the catering staff wore. Instead, he had on a severe black suit. A pair of sleek, black heeled shoes and an oversized shoulder bag finished off the outfit.**

_**Definitely not from around here**_**, Itachi thought. This was Arizona and it was July. No one went beyond "resort casual" at this time of year.**

**He prowled quietly forward along the veranda. When he reached a deep pool of shadow at the side of one of the stone pillars that supported the overhanging roof, he stopped. He propped one shoulder against the pillar and waited for events to unfold.**

**The newcomer's sleek black heeled shoes echoed crisply on the paving stones of the drive. He walked boldly toward the entrance where Tyrra waited. Itachi could see that the somber black suit skimmed a small, feminine figure and barely recognizable muscles, a trim waist and hips that, if one wanted to get technical, were probably too generously proportioned to suit the scale of the rest of the petite frame. He, however, had no problem, technical or otherwise, with his femininity. It looked just right to him.**

**This is the kind of man you looked at twice, even though you knew he wasn't beautiful. At least he was the kind that he looked at twice. Make that three times, he decided. The big, knowing eyes, proud nose and determined chin were striking in a compelling, unconventional way. The veranda lights gleamed on lustrous blood red hair that was secured in a tight pony-tail at the back of his head.**

**But it wasn't his looks that grabbed his full attention across the spectrum of his senses. He had something else going for him, something that didn't depend on physical attractiveness. It was in the way he carried himself, the angle of his shoulders and the tilt of his head. Attitude. Lots of it. It would be a mistake to underestimate this man.**

**Automatically he cataloged and analyzed the data that his senses were collecting, the way he always did when he was hunting.**

**He wasn't prey. He was something a lot more intriguing. He was a challenge. You couldn't charm a guy like this into bed. He would make the decision based on whatever criteria he had established. There would be some fencing involved, certain negotiations, probably a few showdowns.**

**He felt the blood heat in his veins.**

**Tyrra stepped into the man's path. He could see that she had dropped the gracious hostess role. It didn't take paranormal sensitivity to detect the tension and wariness vibrating through her. The first words that came out of Tyrra's mouth told him just how much trouble he was looking at.**

**"What are you doing here, Kyuubi?" Tyrra asked.**

_**Well, damn**_**. Itachi mentally sifted through the files he had been given to read before he was sent to Stone Canyon two weeks ago. No mistake. Right age, right gender, right amount of hostility from Tyrra.**

**This was Kyuubi Lancaster, Arashi's other son, conceived in the course of a brief, illicit affair. The propability analysts employed by Uchiha & Hyuuga, the psychic investigation firm that had hired him for this job, had estimated that the likelihood of him showing up here while he was working undercover was less than ten percent. Which only went to show that just because you were a psychic with a special flair for probability theory didn't mean diddly-squat when it came to predicting the behavior of this guy. Plain, old-fashioned guesswork would have yielded better results.**

**He knew he should be worried. Kyuubi's presence here was seriously bad news. If rumors about him were true, he was the one person in the vicinity who could blow his cover to pieces.**

**According to the Uhiha & Hyuuga files, Kyuubi was a level ten on the U-H Scale. There was no level eleven, at least not officially.**

**The U-H Scale originated in the late 1800s. It was developed by the Konoha Society, an organization devoted to psychic and paranormal research. Back in the Victorian era a lot of serious people took the paranormal very seriously. The period was the heyday of seances, mediums and demonstrations of psychic abilities.**

**Of course the vast majority of practitioners in those were charlatans and frauds. But the Konoha Society had already been in existence for two hundred years at that point, and its members knew the truth. Paranormal talents did exist in some people. The Society's goal was to identify and study such individuals. Over the years it had acquired a large membership of psychically talented people. Those who joined got tested, and they brought their officially to be tested.**

**The U-H Scales was designed to measure the strength of a person's psychic energy. It was continually being updated and expanded as modern experts in the Society created new methods and techniques.**

**It wasn't just the knowledge that Kyubbi was a strong sensitive that raised red flags. According to the files, his talent was extremely rare and highly unusual. The strength of a person's pure psychic energy was fairly easy to measure these days, within limits, at least. Identifying the exact nature of an individual's talent was often far more complicated.**

**In the vast majority of cases psychic abilities fell into the realm of intuition. Those endowed with a measurable amount of paranormal talent were often good card players. They got lucky when they gambled, and they were known for their very reliable hunches.**

**But there were some major exceptions. Among the members of the Society, such exceptions were usually termed "**_**exotics**_**." It was not a compliment.**

**Kyuubi Lancaster was an exotic. He had a preternatural ability to sense the unique kind of psychic energy generated by someone who was attempting to prevaricate or decieve.**

**In other words, Kyuubi was a human lie detector.**

**"Hello, Tyrra," Kyuubi said. "I can see from your expression that you weren't expecting me. I was afraid of that. All I can say is that I've had a bad feeling about this from the start. Sorry for the intrusion."**

_**He didn't sound sorry**_**, Itachi thought. He sounded like a man who expected to have to defend himself; a man who had done just that frequently in the past and who was fully prepared to do so again. A scrappy street fighter in conservative shoes and a badly wrinkled business suit. He was a little surprised that he didn't have "**_**Don't Tread on Me**_**" tatooed across his forehead.**

**"Did Naruto ask you to come here tonight?" Tyrra demanded.**

**"No. I got an e-mail from Arashi. He said it was important."**

_**Now, that was interesting**_**, Itachi thought. Arashi had said nothing at all about his other son, let alone bothered to warn him that he might show up unexpectedly.**

**Kyuubi turned his head quite suddenly and looked straight into the pool of shadow where he stood. A small shock electrified his senses. Something had alerted him to his presence. He hadn't intended for that to happen. He knew how to blend into the background. He had a predator's talent for concealment when he chose to use it and he had been using it instinctively for the past couple minutes.**

**As from the rare handful of other sensitives who possessed exotic psychic abilities similar to his own-other hunters-there were very few people who could have detected his presence in the shadows. Kyuubi's intuitive awareness was especially impressive given the amount of highly charged emotional electricity that was vibrating in the air between him and Tyrra. If nothing else, the tension alone should have distracted him.**

_**Yes, indeed, here comes trouble. Can't wait**_**.**

**"I was not aware that we had gotten a call from the guards at the front gate," Tyrra said stiffly.**

**Kyuubi turned back to her. "Don't worry, there was no major breach of security. The guard called the house before he waved me through the gates. Someone on this end vouched for me."**

**"I see." Tyrra sounded uncharacteristicallty nonplussed. "I don't understand why Arashi didn't tell me that he invited you."**

**"You'll have to take that up with him," Kyuubi said. "Look, it wasn't my idea to come all this way for a cocktail party. I'm here because Arashi said it was very important. That's all I know."**

**"I'll go and find him," Tyrra said. She turned and quickly across the veranda, disappearing through the open French doors.**

**Kyuubi made no move to follow. Instead he switched his attention back to Itachi.**

**"Have we met?" he asked with a chilly politeness that made it very clear he knew they had not.**

**"No," Itachi said. He moved slowly out of the shadows. "But I have a feeling that we're going to get to know each other very well. I'm Itachi Salter."**

**Please Review. Any questions will be answered.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hello, it's me Tyler . I would like to thank twinnie1keens for the review! THANKS!**

**On to the story!**

**Chapter 2 Part Uno**

_**He's lying**_**, Kyuubi thought. **_**Sort of.**_

**He should have been prepared. He was always prepared for a lie. But this wasn't a pure, full-on lie. It was a subtle, nuanced bit of misdirection wrapped in truth, the kind of lie a magician might use: **_**Now you see the coin, now you don't. But there really is a coin. It's just that I can make it disappear.**_

**He was Itachi Salter but he wasn't.**

**Whatever he was, he was definitely a powerful talent. The strong but confusing pulses of energy that accompanied the half-truth jangled his senses. He had developed his own private coding system for lies. The spectrum ran from the hot ultraviolet energy that accompanied the most dangerous lies, to a pale, cool, paranormal shade of silvery white for the benign sort.**

**But Itachi Salter's lie generated energy from across the spectrum. Hot and cold. He knew intuitively that Itachi could be extremely dangerous but he wasn't, at least not at the moment.**

**Adrenaline flooded threw him, making him edgy and hyperalert. His paranormal senses flared wildly, disorienting him on both the physical and psychic planes. His pulse kicked up suddenly and his breathing got very tight.**

**Kyuubi was accustomed to the sensation. He had been living with his rare brand of sensitivity since it developed in his early teens. Heaven knew he had practiced long and hard to learn how to clamp down on his physical as well as his paranormal reactions. But unfortunately his unusual senses were hardwired to the primitive flight-or-flight response. The Konoha House parapsychologist who had helped him deal with his unique type of energy had explained to him that psychic talents that triggered such basic physical instincts were exceptionally hard to control.**

**When he did his own search through the genealogical records of the Konoha Society, looking for examples of others like himself, he had stumbled across two disturbing facts. The first was that, although human lie detectors popped up occasionally among the membership, the majority were fives or lower. Powerful level tens were extremely rare.**

**Disturbing Fact Number Two was that of the handful of level-ten lie detectors in the historical records, the majority had come to bad ends because they never learned to control their talent. They wound up in asylums or took to drugs to dull the effects of the steady barrage of lies that assailed them day after day, year in and year out. Some committed suicide.**

**The truth was, everybody lied. If you were a level-ten lie detector you either got used to it or you went crazy.**

**If there was one thing he had taught himself, Kyuubi thought, it was control.**

**He pulled his senses-all of them-together with an effort of will and adjusted his psychic defenses.**

**"I'm Kyuubi Lancaster," he said. He was proud of the fact that the words came out evenly and politely, as if he wasn't on the downside of a mini-panic attack.**

**"Nice to meet you, Kyuubi," Itachi said.**

**Okay, he wasn't lying now. He really was pleased to meet him. More than pleased, in fact. Kyuubi did not need his psychic sensitivity to detect the masculine anticipation in the words. Old-fashioned intuition worked just fine. Another little thrill quivered through him.**

**Itachi walked, no, he prowled, toward him, a half-filled glass in one hand. Kyuubi got the impression that he was factoring his presence into some private calculation. Fair enough. He was doing the same thing in reverse.**

**"Are you a friend of the family, Mr. Salter?" he asked.**

**"Call me Itachi. I'm a business consultant. Arashi hired me to consult on a new pension and benefit plan for Glazebrook."**

**Another lie wrapped in truth. Wow. This man was scary good. And scary interesting.**

**He had moved into the light cast by one of the wrought-iron veranda lamps, allowing Kyuubi a good look at him for the first time. He had a feeling that had not been by accident. Itachi wanted Kyuubi to see him. He understood why. Even his choice of clothing was an act of misdirection.**

**Kyuubi wondered if he actually believed that the black-framed glasses, the hand-tailored button-down shirt and the business-casual trousers that he wore were an effective disguise. The conservative style of his very dark hair didn't work, either.**

**Nothing could conceal the watchful intellegence in those dark eyes or hide the subtle aura of controlled power that emanated from him. He was all fierce edges and mysterious shadows. He would have bet the tiny amount of money left in his bank account that, like any proper iceberg, the really dangerous part of Itachi Salter was hidden beneath the surface.**

**You didn't have to be psychic to figure out that this was not a guy you wanted to encounter in a dark alley late at night. Not unless he was promising some very kinky sex.**

**The last realization made Kyuubi catch his breath. Where had that come from? He was definitely not inclined toward kinky sex. Actually, he wasn't really into sex of any kind. Sex meant letting go, becoming vulnerable and taking risks with someone you trusted. When you were a human lie detector, you had a lot of trust issues. When he did go to bed with a man, he made certain he was in control.**

**One of the great things about Idate Morino was the fact that he had been quite content to let Kyuubi take charge of the physical side of their relationship, just as he allowed Kyuubi to control every aspect of it. In fact, theirs had been a near-perfect engagement. He and Idate never argued about anything up until the day he dumped Kyuubi.**

**"You're a little late," Itachi observed.**

**"My flight out of San Francisco was delayed," he said.**

**"Kyuubi."**

**Kyuubi jerked his attention away from Itachi Salter and smiled at his half brother. "Hi, Naru."**

**"I just saw Mom." Naruto swept forward, his attractive face glowing with delight. "She told me you were here. I didn't know you were coming down to Arizona tonight." He threw his arms around Kyuubi. "For heaven's sake, why didn't you tell me?"**

**"Sorry," Kyuubi said, hugging Naruto. "I assumed you were aware I had been invited."**

**"Dad probably wanted to surprise me. You know how he is."**

**Not really, Kyuubi thought, but he didn't say it out loud. He had met the man who was his biological father for the first time a few months before. The circumstances had not been ideal. The truth was, he knew very little about Arashi Glazebrook, aside from the fact that he was a legend in Arizona business circles.**

**"It's so good to see you," Naruto said.**

**Kyuubi allowed himself to relax a little. With his brother, at least, he was on safe ground.**

**"You look terrific," he said, glancing down at Naruto's elegant white sheath. "Love the dress."**

**"Thanks." Naruto returned the survey. "You look-"**

**"Don't say it. You know I'll know your lying."**

**Naruto laughed. "You look as if you've been traveling half a day."**

**"Now that's the honest truth," Kyuubi said.**

**He smiled. It was so good to see his brother happy and cheerful. Eight months ago Naruto had been a man in the middle of a nervous breakdown. The change was little short of miraculous. No doubt about it, widowhood had been good for him.**

**Naruto, like his mother, was a registered member of the Konoha Society. Tyrra was a level two on the Uchiha-Hyuuga Scale, which meant that, generally speaking, she had slightly above-average intuition. If she had not descended from a long line of Konoha Society memembers and been tested, she would have gone through life obvious to the psychic side of her nature, taking her flashes of insight for granted, the way so many people did.**

**Naruto, however, was a five with a strong sensitivity to color, visual balance, proportion and harmony. His psychic abilities were one of the reasons he was so successful as an interior designer.**

**"There you are, Kyuubi," Arashi Glazebrook roared from the open doorway. "What the hell took you so long?"**

**"My flight got delayed," Kyuubi said.**

**He kept his voice perfectly neutral, the way he always did when he was around the larger-than-life Arashi Glazebrook. Since their initial meeting he had spent very little time with Arashi. He was not yet sure what to make of him.**

**Arashi could have been cast as the aging, hard-bitten gunslinger in an old-fashioned western was fifty-one, sun-weathered features and sky blue eyes. He was born and raised on an Arizona ranch.**

**Arashi bought and sold the land. And he developed it. He did it so well that he could buy and sell anyone in the land.**

**Eventually he would turn it all over to his son, Ryou. But until then he was still in charge. Kyuubi knew that this summer Ryou, who was in his late twenties, was managing a Glazebrook job site in San Diego.**

**Kyuubi had once asked his mother what made her want to have a one-night stand with Arashi. Power is an incredible aphrodisiac, Gwendolyn said simply.**

**Arashi descended from a long line of Konoha Society members. His particular psychic ability allowed him to map strategies in unique ways. Many sensitives with similar abilities wound up in the military or in politics. Arashi had taken up high-stakes deal making.**

**At the sight of him tonight, flanked by two members of his legitimate family, Kyuubi felt the old, familiar wistfulness well up inside him. He suppressed it with the same ruthless will that he used to control the psychic side of his nature. Get over it. You're not the only person in the world who was raised by a single parent. Worst things could happen to a kid and Lord knows they do, all the time.**

**He'd been lucky. He had a loving mother and a doting great-aunt.**

**"Well, come on inside and get yourself something to eat," Arashi ordered. He started back into the house.**

**"I can't stay long," Kyuubi said quickly.**

**Arashi stopped and looked at him. As did everyone else. Okay, so it had been an odd thing to say, given that he had just flown all the way from San Francisco.**

**Naruto frowned in dismay. "You're not planning on going back to San Francisco tonight, for heaven's sake? You just got here."**

**"No, I'm not going back tonight. I plan to catch a flight home day after tomorrow."**

**"Forget it," Arashi growled. "We've got business to talk about. You'll need to stick around longer then that."**

**"I have things to do back home," Kyuubi began, speaking through clenched teeth.**

**Itachi was suddenly beside him, taking his elbow, drawing him towards the French doors.**

**"You could probably use a little food after that flight and the long drive from the airport," he said.**

**It was a command, not a suggestion. His first inclination, as always in such circumstances, was to dig in his heels. That intention got even stronger when he realized that everyone, including Arashi, was clearly relieved to see Itachi taking charge of him.**

**Itachi must have felt his incipient resistance. He gave Kyuubi a slightly amused smile and raised his brows, silently asking him if he really wanted to cause a scene over a trivial matter like hitting the hors d'oeuvre table.**

****

**What the heck. He hadn't eaten anything since the small carton of yogurt he'd had for lunch.**

**"All right," he said.**

**"Where are you spending the night?" Naruto asked.**

**"At one of the chain hotels near the airport," Kyuubi replied.**

**Naruto was appalled.**

**"It's an hour's drive back to the airport," he said.**

**"I know," Kyuubi said.**

**"You'll stay here," Arashi declared decisively. "Plenty of room."**

**Tyrra's mouth opened and then closed abruptly on the objection. Kyuubi felt sorry for her. Having your husband's long-lost son, the product of his one-night stand with another woman, show up on your doorstep thirty-two years later had to be in the top ten of every wife's worst nightmares.**

**"Thanks, but I prefer the hotel. I've already checked in and left my suitcase in the room."**

**"If only I hadn't just moved out of my apartment," Naruto said, "you could have stayed with me. But like I told you on the phone last week, I'm here with Mom and Dad until the deal closes on my new condo."**

**"It's okay," Kyuubi said. "I don't mind the hotel. Honest."**

**Arashi's jaw flexed ominously but Itachi had Kyuubi almost to the doors.**

**"He has plenty of time to decide what he wants to do," he said, drawing Kyuubi through the doors. "Let me get some food into him first."**

**Every head in the crowded room turned when Itachi escorted him inside. A split second later, everyone looked away. The noise of hastily resumed coversations and false laughter rose rapidly, filling the large space.**

**Kyuubi had been prepared for the uncomfortable reaction but it nevertheless hit him like a psychic shockwave. He had to remind himself to breathe. He felt Itachi's hand tighten on his arm but he said nothing.**

**Itachi steered him toward a leather padded bar at one end of the long, spacious room, evidently unfazed by the covert glances and curious stares.**

**"Let's start with the drink first," he said. "If you've been in the Valley of the Sun for more than five minutes at this time of year, you need water."**

**"I am a little thirsty," Kyuubi admitted.**

**He brought Kyuubi to a halt at the bar and looked at the attendant. "Sparkling water and a glass of Chardonnay for Mr. Lancaster, please."**

**"Never mind the wine. I won't be staying here long and I've got to drive back to the airport."**

**Itachi shrugged agreeably. "Just the water, in that case."**

**The man filled a glass with bubbly water, and handed it to Kyu.**

**"Thank you." He said.**

**"Now we do a surgical strike on the buffet." Itachi said.**

**Itachi guided him to a rustic, wooden plank table that looked as if it dated from the early 1800s when Mexico controlled a large chunk of what was now Arizona. He knew the table was probably a genuine antique. Tyrra had excellent taste and could afford the best.**

**The buffet was decorated with colorful, hand-painted pottery dishes. A large, tiered ice sculpture with hollowed-out bowls held an assortment of cold hors d'oeuvres. At the other end of the table steam wafted wafted up from some dishes.**

**It dawned on Kyu that he was hungry.**

**"You were right," he said to Itachi. "I do need something to eat."**

**"I recommend those minature blue-corn tortilla things." He handed him a red plate. "The filling may be a little too hot for someone from SF, though."**

**"Obviously you don't know much about us San Franciscans." He piled several of the tiny tacos onto the plate and moved onto the cold shrimp and salsa.**

**Naruto materialized out of nowhere scaring the hell out of Kyu, who was just about to get his fork and napkin. Kyu glared, and Naru grinned sheepishly.**

**"Everything okay?" He asked. He looked intensely relieved when he saw the assortment of food on Kyu's plate. "Oh, good. You're eating."**

**"As you know, that's one of the things I do well," Kyuubi said. "Don't worry about me, Naru. I'm fine. Go back to your guests."**

**"I wish Dad had told us you were coming. We could have made some other arrangements." Naruto glanced around uneasily. "I realize this must be very uncomfortable for you."**

**"I'm fine. Go mingle. Don't worry, now that I'm here, I'm not going to skip town without spending some time with you."**

**Itachi looked at Naruto. "I'll take care of him."**

**Naruto clearly drew strength and reassurance from that statement.**

**"Well in that case, I'd better go talk to some people," Naru said. "If I don't, Mom will be upset. Thanks, Itachi." He gave Kyu a warm smile. "I'll catch up with you later."**

**"You bet," Kyu said.**

**Naruto disappeared into the crowd.**

**Itachi did a quick study of the room. "I suggest we go outside. It's a little crowded in here."**

**"Fine by me."**

**Kyuubi munched a mini-taco, feeling remarkably better, and let Itachi pilot him out a door and onto another long veranda. This one fronted an elegantly curved pool. The underwater lights made the water glow a strange shade of turquoise.**

**They left the veranda, walked across the patio and sat down at a round table that ovelooked the pool.**

**"Nice night," Kyuubi said around a mouthful of taco.**

**"Hit a hundred five today. Supposed to be hotter tomorrow."**

**"Yeah, well, it is Arizona and it is summer." He drank some of the water and lowered the glass. "Any idea what Archer wants to talk to me about?"**

**"No. I didn't even know you'd been invited to this party."**

**He was telling the truth, Kyu realized. That made for an interesting change.**

**"I got the feeling that you were taken by surprise," he said. **_**And you don't like being taken by surprise**_**, Kyu thought. "You're used to being three steps ahead of everyone else, aren't you?"**

**"Obviously i screwed up this time."**

**Kyu smiled cheerfully. "Don't blame yourself. Everyone else seems to be equally startled to see me. Looks like Arashi played his cards close to his chest on this one." He paused, thinking about that. "Which, I admit, makes me a little curious."**

**"Is that why you came down here? Curiosity?"**

**"Nope. I'm here because Mom insisted." He raised his brows. "You do know a little of my family history, I assume?"**

**"Some," Itachi agreed. "I'm aware that you're all registered members of the Konoha Society."**

**"You, too?"**

**"Yes."**

**Kyu nodded. That explained some of the aura of power that radiated from him. It also explained why Arashi hired him as a consultant. Society members often prferred to work with other sensitives. They tended to choose their closest friends and spouses from the Konoha community, as well.**

**"Actually, I was referring to the somewhat complicated aspects of my parentage, not our Society affiliation," he said to Itachi.**

**"I know something about that, too."**

**"The thing is, I never met Arashi or Tyrra or Naruto or Ryou until this past year. We're all still feeling our way. Naruto and I get along great and Ryou is friendly. But my presence upsets Tyrra for obvious reasons so I try not to inflict myself on her very much."**

**"What about your relationship with Arashi?"**

**"Still under construction."**

**"Why did your mother want you to come down here tonight?" Itachi asked.**

**"It's kind of complicated. The background is that Mom and Aunt Nala asked me to wait until I was in college before deciding whether or not to introduce myself to Arashi. I respected their wishes. By the time I actually did go off to college, I had decided I didn't want to establish contact after all."**

**"Why not?"**

**He hesitated, uncertain how to put it into words. "Every time I saw a photgraph of the Glazebrooks in a magazine or a newspaper they looked like the perfect family. I knew that would change if I showed up at the front door. I guess part of me didn't want to destroy what they had."**

**"No such thing as a perfect family," Itachi said.**

**"Maybe not. But the Glazebrooks sure looked like they had come mighty close. Earlier this year I finally did contact Naruto, though. Now that the damage has been done, Mom and Aunt Nala decided it's about time Arashi and I bonded."**

**"Family," Itachi said. "Gotta love 'em."**

**Kyu smiled and drank some water.**

**"The situation with your relatives isn't the only complication you've got in your life, is it?" Itachi lounged back in the chair and stretched his legs. "You're a level-ten parasensitive with a rather unique talent."**

**Kyu stilled. "You know?"**

**"That you're a human lie detector? Yeah. I did some background research on the family before I took this job. I may not have all the facts but I think I know the basics. Must be tough at times. People lie a lot, don't they?**

**"Yes," he said. "All the time, in fact."**

**Kyu wondered if Itachi had been testing him earlier when he gave him his name or if he thought he could beat his sensitivity. Maybe Itachi just didn't give a damn if he knew he was lying. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that it was probably the latter.**

**"What's your sensitivity?" he asked.**

**Itachi didn't answer. He turned his head to look back toward the house.**

**"Damn," he said softly.**

**Kyu followed his gaze and saw a stick-thin woman silhouetted against the lights of the house.**

**The woman hesitated. Kyuubi realized she was searching for someone. With luck she would not think to check the heavily shadowed sitting area on the far side of the pool.**

**But at that moment the woman started purposefully forward. It was obvious that she making for the table. So much for luck, Kyuubi thought. His was not in good form toninght.**

**"Ino Yamanaka-Czar." Itachi said.**

**"I know. Just what I need to make my evening complete." Resigned, Kyuubi put down his uneaten taco.**

**"You know her?" Itachi asked.**

**"I met her once. That was the night her son, Kabuto McAllister, was murdered."**

**"McAllister was your brother's husband, wasn't he?"**

**"Yes." He watched uneasily as Ino came toward them with an unsteady gait. This was going to get ugly.**

**"Just so you know," Itachi said quietly, "Ino drinks. A lot. I"m told the problem started after her son's death."**

**"Naruto said something about that."**

**Ino stopped near the edge of the pool. She had a glass in one hand. Kyuubi could see that she was tottering on her high heels.**

**Ino was in her late forties with platnum blonde hair, looking sleek. Six months ago she had looked fit and younger. Tonight she appeared emaniciated, almost, in her tight cocktail dress. The bones of her face were knife edges; the hollows of her cheeks were that deep.**

**"I can't believe you had the gall to walk into this house tonight, you murderous bitch," Ino said. The words were slurred but the rage embedded in them was clear.**

**Kyuubi got to his feet. Beside him, Itachi did the same.**

**"Hello, Mrs. Czar," Kyuubi said.**

**"Who's that with you?" Ino peered into the shadows beneath the ramada. "Is that you, Itachi?"**

**"Yes," Itachi said. "I think it would be a good idea for you to go back inside, Mrs. Czar."**

**"Shut up. You work for Arashi. You don't tell me what to do." Ino turned back to Kyuubi. "You don't give a damn about the pain you've caused me, do you? You think you can waltz back here to Stone Canyon as if nothing happened."**

**Kyuubi started slowly toward her.**

**"Don't," Itachi said in a low voice.**

**Kyuubi ignored him and came to a halt at thew edge of the pool, facing Ino.**

**"I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Czar." Kyuubi said.**

**"You're sorry?" Ino's voice rose, anguish and fury inextricably mingled. "How dare you say that after what you didYou murdered my son and everyone inside that house knows it!"**

**Without warning, she dashed the contents of her glass across Kyuubi's face.**

**Kyuubi gasped and closed his eyes. Instinctively he took a step back.**

**Ino gave an inarticulate cry of rage. Kyuubi opened his eyes in time to see the woman coming straight at him, arms outstretched. In the eerie glow of the underwater lights, Ino's face was a demonic mask.**

**Itachi was closing in with astonishing speed. He caught Ino's arm before she could strike but Kyuubi had already taken another step back to evade the blow. The heel of his shoe found nothing but air to support him.**

**He toppled sideways into the pool with an ignominious splash.**

**At least the water was warm, he thought as he went under. On the rare occasions when he was in Glazebrook Territory, he was grateful for whatever luck came his way.**

**The action and other drama with actually begin from here! . Read&review please! I do accept criticism ya know!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Ch. 3**

**Itachi looked at Ino's twisted features.**

**"That's enough," he ordered. "Go back inside. I'll take care of this."**

**She jerked her attention away from the sight of Kyuubi surfacing in the pool.**

**"Stay out of this Salter," she hissed. "It has nothing to do with you. That whore tried to seduce my son. When that failed, he murdered him."**

**"Ino?" Owen Czar hurried toward his wife. "What's going on?"**

**Ino started to cry. "That bitch came back. I can't believe it. He actually came back."**

**She covered her face with both hands, whirled unsteadily and rushed toward the veranda.**

**Owen came to a halt. He was an athletic man in his early fifties with strong features and unruly salt-and-pepper hair. Under most circumstances he appeared relaxed and confident. But at the moment he looked awkward and helpless.**

**Years ago Czar had helped Arashi found Glazebrook, Inc. The two men had been partners for nearly three decades until Arashi bought out Owen's share of the business. The pair were still close friends.**

**A year ago Owen met and married Ino. It was a second marriage for both of them. Arashi had told Itachi that Owen and Ino had met through auspices of the Society. Itachi had a hunch that the matchmaking computers at Konoha House, designed to help single members of the Society find life partners from among the community of sensitives, had failed to allow the possibility that Ino would morph into a full-blown alcoholic. It wasn't the first time arcane-match had made a mistake.**

**"I'm sorry," Owen said heavily. He looked at Kyuubi. "Are you all right?"**

**Kyuubi stood shoulder-deep in the water. "Don't worry about it, Mr. Czar."**

**"Are you certain?" Owen asked.**

**"Yes," he said, his voice gentling. "It was an accident. I lost my balance and fell into the pool."**

**Owen's features tightened. "Ino hasn't been herself since Kabuto was murdered."**

**"I know," Kyuubi said.**

**"I've been trying to get her to go into rehab. But she refuses."**

**"I understand," Kyuubi said.**

**Owen nodded humbly. "Thank you." He looked back toward the house. Ino had disappeared into the shadows of the veranda. "I'd better take her home."**

**He walked back toward the house, shoulders slumped.**

**Itachi waited until he was gone. Then he went to stand at the edge of the pool.**

**Kyuubi flung his hair out of his eyes and looked at him, hands moving rhythmically under the surface.**

**"Don't say it," he warned.**

**"Can't help myself." He crouched down on the coping. "I did warn you not to confront her."**

**Kyuubi made a face. "I thought consultants were supposed to do something helpful and productive in a moment of crisis."**

**"Right. Almost forgot."**

**Itachi rose, walked to the nearby cabana and opened the door. Inside he found a stack of oversized towels on the shelf. He picked up one and carried it back to the pool.**

**"How's this for helpful?" he asked, unfolding the towel.**

**"Much better."**

**Kyuubi took a deep breath and dove back under the water to retrieve his shoes. When he surfaced again he trudged over to the wide steps where Itachi waited.**

**"There's a robe inside the cabana," Itachi said, draping the towel around kyuubi's shoulders.**

**"Thanks."**

**Clutching the towel, Kyuubi made his way toward the small cabana. The black suit clung to his body, outlining his slender physique.**

**He stripped off his jacket just before he reached the door. The thin, pale silk shirt he wore underneath it was rendered transparent by the water. Itachi could see his back.**

**Kyuubi disappeared inside the cabana. He considered his options. There was no doubt now that Kyuubi Lancaster was a spanner that had just been thrown into the works of his carefully crafted scheme. He had to decide how to deal him, but first he needed more information.**

**The cabana door opened. Kyuubi walked out muffled from head to toe in a thick white terrycloth robe. His hair was wrapped in a towel. He carried his sopping-wet clothes in one hand and his soaked shoes in the other.**

**"I think the party's over for me,"Kyuubi said. He paused at the table to pick up his shoulder bag.**

**"Looks that way," Itachi agreed. "I'll take you home."**

**"Hotel," Kyu corrected automatically. "I don't live around here, remember?"**

**A small shock of awareness slammed through Itachi. Talk about a slip of the tongue. He had spoken without thinking, meaning his home, or rather the house he rented. What the hell was that about? Probably something to do with seeing Kyuubi in a robe and a knowing that he was naked underneath the pristine white terrycloth.**

**"I'll take you back to your hotel," Itachi said.**

**"Thanks, anyway, but I've got a car."**

**"It's not a problem. It will give me an excuse to leave early. Cocktail party chatter bores me."**

**"Why come, in that case?"**

**Itachi shrugged. "Arashi invited me. He's the client."**

**Kyuubi gave him an odd look. **_**Kyuubi knew he was lying to him**_**, Itachi thought. But he sensed that he wasn't going to call him on it.**

**Kyuubi was trying to figure him out, Itachi realized. Fair enough. He was doing the same thing to him. Itachi smiled slightly.**

**"What is so amusing?" Kyu demanded crossly.**

**"We're like a couple of fencers," Itachi said. "Testing each others defences. Looking for openings. Makes for an interesting game don't you think?"**

**Kyuubi went very still. "I didn't come here to play games."**

**"I know. But sometimes the game finds you."**

**"I don't know what you think you're doing, Itachi Salter, but whatever it is-"**

**Itachi took his arm. "Let's get you back to your hotel."**

**"I told you, I'm fine. I can drive myself."**

**"Be reasonable." Itachi steered him toward the veranda. "You're soaked to the skin. You've had a long day. You've been through some family drama and a major scene with a woman who seems to hate your guts. On top of that, you probably don't know your way around Phoenix very well. Let me take you back to your hotel."**

**"No, thank you." Polite but determined.**

**"You're as stubborn as Arashi."**

**They reached the veranda. Kyuubi halted abruptly and looked at the open doors.**

**"I'm not going to go back inside," he said, glancing down at his robe. "Not like this."**

**"No," Itachi agreed. He tightened his grip on Kyuubi's arm and drew him along the veranda. "We'll go this way."**

**Itachi walked him around the side of the house. When they reached the crowded driveway Itachi saw the parking attendant. The young man was hovering over Kyuubi's rented compact.**

**"Looks like my car is blocking another vehicle," Kyu said.**

**"That would be mine."**

**Kyu gave a small start and then smiled ruefully. "What are the odds, huh?"**

**"I figure maybe it was psychic karma."**

**"You believe in psychic karma?"**

**"Didn't until tonight," Itachi admitted. He didn't like the way the attendant was studying Kyuubi's car. "I think we may have a problem."**

**"What?" Kyu looked up, keys in hand.**

**They were close to the compact now. Itachi could see the spiderweb of cracks in the windshield. Kyuubi noticed them a couple seconds later.**

**"Oh, damn," Kyu whispered. "That rental agency is not going to be happy about this."**

**The attendant saw Itachi. "I was just about to go talk to my boss."**

**"What happened?" Kyuubi asked.**

**"Mrs. Czar came outside a little while ago," the attendant said unhappily. "She wanted to know which car had arrived in the last half hour. I told her that it was this one."**

**"Good grief," Kyuubi said. "What did she do to my windshield?"**

**"She, uh, smashed it with a rock," the attendant said.**

**"Where's Mrs. Czar?" Itachi asked.**

**"Her husband came after her. Said he was going to take her home. He apologized and said to tell you that he'll make things right with the rental company."**

**Itachi released Kyu. "That settles it. You won't be driving yourself back to the hotel tonight." He took the keys from Kyu's unresisting fingers. I'll move your car so we can get mine out."**

**Kyuubi sighed, resigned now. "Okay. Thanks."**

**"Psychic karma, remember?" He opened the door of the compact and got behind the wheel.**

**Kyuubi waited, his hands stuffed into the pockets of the robe, while Itachi switched the positions of the two vehicles. When he had reparked the compact, he settled Kyuubi into the front seat of the BMW and went around to the driver's got behind a wheel and drove down the drive and out onto the road that looped through the gated golf course community. The security guard waved him through the massive wrought-iron gates.**

**Kyuubi looked out of the window, evidently absorbed by the night and the lights of Phoenix in the distance.**

**"I knew that Kabuto McAllister was murdered six months ago," he said after a while. "Arashi mentioned that the cops believe he interrupted a burglary in progress at his home here in Stone Canyon."**

**"That's the official theory." Kyuubi did not turn his head away from the inky-dark view. "But as you may have noticed, Kabuto's mother is convinced that I murdered her son. She's had several months to promote her theory. I understand she's been quite successful, although Naruto assures me that most people in Stone Canyon are very careful not to speculate too loudly in Arashi's hearing."**

**"Arashi sure as hell wouldn't want that kind of gossip going around."**

**Kyu turned his head to look at him. "The police did question me, you know."**

**"Be surprising if they didn't. You were the one who found the body."**

**"Yes."**

**Itachi glanced at him. Kyuubi had gone back to studying the night.**

**"Must have been bad," Itachi said quietly.**

**"It was."**

**Itachi said nothing for a moment. "How did it happen that you were first on the scene?"**

**"I flew into Phoenix that evening to see Naruto. There was a mixup with a message I had left for him. He thought I was due in the following morning. He was out attending a reception for Stone Canyon Arts Academy when I arrived. I drove straight to his place. The front door was open. I walked in and found Kabuto's body."**

**Itachi didn't need his parasenses to pick up the lingering traces of shock and horror under the simple, straightforward words.**

**"Arashi told me that the safe had been opened," he said. "It certainly sounds like an interrupted burglary scenario."**

**"Yes. But that hasn't stopped Ino from concluding that I was the killer. She thinks I was having an affair with Kabuto and that I murdered him because he refused to leave Naruto."**

**"Naruto and McAllister were separated at the time. Any idea why he was at Naruto's house that evening?"**

**"No." Kyu said.**

**He did not want to ask but the hunter in him needed to know.**

**"Were you sleeping with McAllister?" Itachi asked without inflection.**

**Kyuubi shuddered. "Lord, no. There's no way I could have been atrracted to a guy like him. Kabuto McAllister was a liar."**

**Itachi's stomach clenched. He probably hated liars.**

**"Everyone lies at one time or another," Itachi said. Including me.**

**"Well, sure." Kyu sounded startlingly casual about that simple fact. "I don't have a problem with most lies or the people who tell them, at least, not since I learned how to handle my talent. Hell, I tell lies myself sometimes. I'm pretty good at lying, actually. Maybe it goes with having a gift for detecting lies."**

**Itachi was dumbfounded. That did not happen very often, he reflected wryly. It took him a couple seconds to regroup.**

**"Let me get this straight," Itachi said. "You're a human lie detector and you don't mind that most people lie?"**

**Kyu smiled slightly. "Let me put it this way. When you wake up one morning at the age of thirteen and discover that because of your newly developed parasenses you can tell that everyone around you, even the people you love, lie occasionally and that you are going to be driven crazy if you don't get some perspective, you learn to get some perspective."**

**Itachi was reluctantly fascinated. "Just what kind of perspective do you have on the subject?"**

**"I take the Darwinian view. Lying is a universal talent. everyone I've ever known can do it rather well. Most little kids start practicing the skill as soon as they master language."**

**"So you figure there must be some evolutionary explanation, is that it?"**

**"I think so, yes," Kyuubi said, calmly serious and certain. "When you look at it objectively it seems obvious that the ability to lie is part of everyone's kit of survival tools, a side effect of possessing language skills. There are a lot of situations in which the ability to lie is extremely useful. There are times when you might have to lie to protect yourself or someone else, for example."**

"**Okay, I get that kind of lying," he said.**

"**You might lie to an enemy in order to win a battle or a war. Or you might have to lie just to defend your personal privacy. People lie all the time to diffuse a tense social situation or to avoid hurting someone's feelingsor to calm someone who is frightened."**

"**True."**

"**The way I see it, if people couldn't lie, they probably wouldn't be able to live together in groups, at least not for very long or with any degree of sociability. And there you have the bottom line."**

"**What bottom line?"**

**He spread his hands. "If humans could not lie, civilization as we know it would cease to exist."**

**He whistled softly. "That's an interesting perspective, all right. I admit I've never thought about the subject in those terms."**

"**Probably because you've never had to think about it. Most people take the ability to lie for granted, whether or not they approve of it."**

"**But not you."**

"**I was forced to develop a slightly different perspective." Kyu paused. "What I've always found fascinating is that the vast majority of people, nonparasensitive and sensitive alike, think they know when someone else islying. That's true around the world. But the reality is that the research shows that most folks can detect a lieonly slightly better than fifty percent of the time. They might as well flip a coin."**

"**What about the experts? Cops and other law enforcement types?"**

"**According to the studies they aren't much better at picking out liars, at least not in a controlled lab situation.**

**The problem is that the cues people assume correlate with lying, such as avoiding eye contact or sweating, generally don't work."**

"**You can't count on Pinocchio's nose growing, huh?"**

"**It's not a total myth," Kyu said. "Physical cues do exist but they vary a lot from one individual to another. If you know a person well, you've got a much better shot at picking up on a lie, but otherwise it's a crapshoot.**

**Like I said, lying is a natural human ability and we're all probably a lot better at it than we want to admit."**

**"You said that Kabuto McAllister's lies were different."**

**"Yes."**

**"What did you mean?"**

**"Kabuto was a different kind of liar," Kyu said quietly. "He was ultraviolet."**

**"Ultraviolet?"**

**"My private code for evil."**

**"Heavy word."**

**"It was the right one for Kabuto, trust me. The ability to lie is avery powerful tool. In and of itself, I consider it to be value-neutral, sort of like fire."**

**"But like fire it can be turned into a weapon, is that it?"**

**"Exactly." Kyu folded his arms. "You can cook a meal with fire or burn down a house. In the hands of someone with evil intent, lying can be used to cause enormous damage."**

**"What makes you think Kabuto McAllister was evil? From all accounts he was a devoted husband who stuck with Naruto through his nervous breakdown."**

**Kyu whipped around in his seat, suddenly fierce and furious. "That image was the biggest Kabuto McAllister lie of all. And it really pisses me off that it still stands, even though that bastard is dead."**

**Itachi absorbed that. "What did McAllister do to make you dislike him so much?"**

**"Kabuto didn't stick by Naruto while he went through his nervous breakdown. He caused Naru's breakdown. But Naruto and I have given up trying to make anyone, including Arashi and Tyrra, believe that. As far as the whole town of Stone Canyon is concerned, Kabuto was a heroic choirboy right to the end."**

**Itachi gave that some thought. "Okay, what's your theory of the murder?"**

**Kyu hesitated and then sank slowly back into the seat. "There doesn't seem to be any reason to doubt the cops' version of events. Kabuto probably did interrupt a burglary in progress."**

**"Now who's lying? You don't believe that for a minute, do you?"**

**Kyu sighed. "No. But I don't have a better answer, either."**

**"Not even a tiny theory?"**

**"All I know is that Kabuto was evil. Evil people collect enemies. Maybe one of them tracked him down and killed him that night."**

**"But you have no motive, aside from the fact that Kabuto was not a nice person."**

**"Sometimes that's enough."**

**"Yeah," Itachi said. "Sometimes it is."**

**There was a short silence.**

**"By the way,"Kyu said after a moment. "We need to keep and eye out for the Indian School Road exit."**

**"Why?"**

**"Because my motel is on a street off Indian School Road." Kyu said patiently.**

**"Thought you said your hotel was out at the airport."**

**"I lied."**

****

**The best that could be said about the Desert Dawn Motel was that it made no pretense of being anything other than what it was: a run-down, low-end, budget-class establishment from another era. The two-story structure was badly in need of a coat of paint. Rusted air conditioners thundered in the night.**

**Most of the landscaping had died back in the Jurassic. Only a few hardy barrel cacti and one wilted palm had survived. The letters in the red and yellow neon sign snapped and crackled and blinked annoyingly.**

**Kyuubi felt a distinct pang of embarrassment when Itachi eased the BMW into a parking space near the entrance to the lobby. Kyu sdurpressed it immediately.**

**Itachi turned off the engine and regarded the limp palm tree that graced the cracked croncrete sidewalk.**

**"You know," he started, "if you had mentioned that you were coming into town this evening the Glazebrook travel department would have been happy to make reservations for you at a slightly more upscale hotel. I'll bet they could have found you something where the bathroom isn't down the hall."**

**"There's a bathroom in my room, thank you very much." Kyu gritted out as he got out of the car.**

**Itachi followed suit and took Kyu's wet clothes from the trunk.**

**"Mind telling me why you chose this place?" He asked politely.**

**"Maybe you didn't know that I was fired from my job six months ago. I haven't had much luck finding a new position. So I'm on a strict budget these days."**

**"Your father is one of the wealthiest men in the state," Itachi pointed out mildly.**

**"I don't consider Arashi Glazebrook to be my father in anything but the biological sense."**

**"In other words, you're too proud to take money from him."Itachi shook his head, amused. "The two of you sure have a lot in common."**

**He pushed open the grimy glass door. Kyuubi went past him into the postage stamp-sized lobby.**

**The desk clerk stared at Kyuubi, taking in the sight of the bathrobe and towel turban.**

**"You okay, Mister Lancaster?" he asked uneasily.**

**"Late night swim,"Kyuubi said.**

**"I'm going to see Mister Lancaster to his room," Itachi said.**

**The clerk sized him up and then shrugged. "Sure. Whatever. Just keep it quiet, will you? There's a couple from the Midwest in the room next door."**

**Kyuubi frowned. "What are you talking about? Why should I care if there are people next door."**

**The clerk rolled his eyes.**

**Itachi grabbed Kyuubi's arm and hauled him toward the stairs.**

**"What's going on here?" Kyuubi asked, bewildered. "Am I missing something?"**

**Itachi waited until they reached the next floor and started down the dingy hall before answering.**

**"The guy at the desk thinks you're a tramp who is using this motel to entertain clients."**

**"You being the client?"**

**"Yes."**

**"I suppose the bathrobe gives a poor impression."**

**Kyu stopped in front of room 210. Itachi took the key from him and inserted it into the lock.**

**The door to room 208 opened. A middle-aged woman with a helmet of gray curls peered disapprovingly through the crack.**

**Itachi nodded politely. "Evening, ma'am."**

**The woman slammed the door. Itachi heard voices through the walls. The door opened again. This time it was a balding, overweight man dressed in a pair of plaid Bermuda shorts and an aging white t-shirt looked out. He stared hard at Kyuubi through the opening.**

**"Nice night, isn't it?"**

**The man shut the door without saying anything. Itachi heard the light snick of the deadbolt sliding into place.**

**"I don't think the night clerk is the only one wondering about your career path."**

**Kyuubi sighed. "Little do they know I don't even have a career at the moment."**

**Itachi opened the door.**

**The interior of the small room was as unprepossessing as the exterior. At the far end cheap glass doors opened to a small balcony which overlooked a small pool. Kyuubi switched on the weak overhead light.**

**Itachi spotted a single, roll-aboard suitcase on the night stand.**

**"Doesn't look like you packed for an extended stay."**

**"I'll give Arashi one day to explain to me why he dragged me down here. As long as I'm here I'll spend some time with Naruto. But after that I have no reason to hang around."**

**"Going back to San Fransisco?"**

**"I'm job hunting. Six months of unemployment has put a dent in my savings. I don't want to have to start borrowing from my mother and aunt again. I need to find work."**

**Itachi nodded. "Probably for the best."**

**"Thanks for the ride," Kyuubi said. "It has been an interesting evening, to say the least."**

**"My dates say that a lot."**

**Kyuubi smiled. "In case you didn't notice, this wasn't a date. You were just doing your job. Taking care of problems for Arashi Glazebrook."**

**Kyuubi closed the door very gently but firmly in his face.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**I've noticed some confusing mistakes and I will be making corrections and-hopefully- updating regularly with Lies. **

**Basically I'll be deleting everything but the prologue and just going over everything for any mistakes -things like that. **

**Plus I might combine a chapter or two so if you're a reader coming back to this story you might want to skim through just to pick back up in the right place.**

****

**Itachi drove back to Stone Canyon and parked in the garage of the house he rented. He opened the trunk of the BMW, took out the computer that was never far from his side and went indoors.**

**He had intended to spend the night prowling through a couple more homes belonging to members of the Glazebrooks' circle of acquaintances, searching for some indication of what he had been sent here to find. It was how he had spent most of the other nights in Stone Canyon. Thus far he had managed to rummage through the closets, drawers and wall safes of twelve residences.**

**But the arrival of Kyuubi Lancaster had changed his plans for the evening. Ever since his first sight of Kyuubi, his hunting senses had been on high alert. Kyuubi was important. He could feel it. And not just because he wanted to take him to bed, although that was pretty damn important, too.**

**In the kitchen he flipped on a light and set the thin laptop on the table. He poured himself a glass of scotch, sat down and powered up the computer.**

**He did not want anymore surprises.**

**The heavily encrypted files on the Glazebrook family that had been given to him contained only sketchy information on Kyuubi Lancaster. He reviewed it quickly.**

**Kyuubi came from long lines of registered Society members on both sides of his family. There was an asterisk next to his U-H Scale number. It meant that, although he had been assigned a ten, his particular type of sensitivity was so rare that the researchers did not have enough examples to guarantee that the rating was accurate.**

**There was a similar asterisk next to the number on his para profile, too.**

**Kyuubi had been raised by his mother, Gwendolyn Lancaster, an accountant, and his great-aunt, Nala Flood, in the San Francisco Bay area. She had a degree in history from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Itachi knew enough about the reputation of that branch of the UC system to be aware that Kyuubi had probably emerged with not only a respectable education but a slightly off beat view of the world, as well.**

**He paid attention to that small fact because here in Arizona, Glazebrooks were not inclined to be offbeat. They were pillars of the community, active in civic, business and charitable affairs.**

**He dug a little deeper into the files and found the item he was looking for. There was a small note to the effect that following graduation Kyuubi had applied to work for the West Coast branch of Uchiha-Hyuuga. His application was rejected.**

**In the intervening years he had applied several more times, and been rejected several more times.**

**Following his failure to obtain a position at U&H, Kyuubi had gone to work for a small nonprofit foundation. He stayed there three years before accepting a managerial position in the larger, more prestigious Draper Trust.**

**The Draper Trust was a private foundation that specialized in making grants to organizations that worked with battered women and homeless families, and in the fields of early childhood health and education. He had evidently been very successful at the trust. At least, that had been true until six months ago. That was when she was questioned in connection with the murder of Kabuto McAllister.**

**When Kyuubi had returned home to San Francisco he was fired from his position at Draper Trust. His engagement to another executive at the trust, Idate Morino, ended at the same time. He had spent the intervening months searching for a new position in the charitable foundation world without any luck. He had also sent another application to the West Coast branch of U&H.**

**Rejected again.**

**Itachi did a quick search on Idate Morino in the Konoha Society records. There were a few Morinos listed, but not the Idate R. Morino who had been Kyuubi's fiancé. Kyuubi tried to fake it with a non-sensitive, he thought, just as he tried with Amaru.**

**That gave them something in common. They both knew that very few members of the Konoha Society were interested in marrying a level-ten exotic of any kind, let alone a hunter or a human lie detector. They had each gone outside the community to find mates. The results had been spectacular failures for both of them.**

**He sat back in his chair and sipped the scotch, thinking.**

**After a while he pulled up the data on Kabuto McAllister's was a good deal of information available because McAllister's death had been big news among the country club set in Stone Canyon. Most of the material was unhelpful, however, and superficial at best. The investigation had gone nowhere.**

**Kyuubi had given a statement to the police but was never an official suspect. It didn't take much imagination to figure out why he was cleared so quickly, Itachi thought. He was, after all, Arashi Glazebrook's son. No one affiliated with the Stone Canyon Police Department would have been eager to press an investigation without solid evidence. It would have been a career-breaking move.**

**Itachi sipped more scotch and thought about what Kyuubi had told him. He had called Kabuto evil and claimed he was the responsible for Naruto's nervous breakdown. That was pretty heavy stuff. It was also the first hint of negative gossip he'd picked up concerning Naruto's sainted husband. As far as the rest of Stone Canyon was concerned, Kabuto had been a damn near perfect husband.**

**But what if Arashi Glazebrook had suspected that Naruto had been abused? Itachi didn't doubt for a moment that Arashi was capable of gunning down a son-in-law if he thought said son-in-law had done something terrible to one of his children. Arashi grew up on a ranch and spent time in the military. He knew guns.**

**The problem was that Arashi, Tyrra and Naruto had all been seen at the Arts Academy reception that evening. There was no shortage of witnesses. Then again, how hard would it be to slip away from a crowded reception long enough to kill someone who was only a couple miles away?**

**Itachi pulled up the Kabuto B. McAllister file. There wasn't much of interest in it. McAllister and his mother, Ino, were both members of the Society, but neither had tested high on the U-H Scale. Ino was a two and Kabuto a four. Both had been rated as possessing "generalized parasensitivity" with no special aspects. As a four Kabuto had probably been a very good card player. The talent also explained his success as an investor. Kabuto had been a very wealthy man.**

**The Konoha Society members were statistically more inclined to possess varying degrees of paranormal talents because of the group's long history of encouraging marriage between physically talented people. Like every other human trait, genetics played a role.**

**He went swiftly through the rest of the information Uchiha-Hyuuga had on Kabuto. McAllister appeared for the first time in the local area a few months after his mother married Owen Czar. Kabuto had no previous marriages, according to the file. He was well educated, had a flair for the financial world and had worked for a medium-sized brokerage house before going out on his own as a private investor. By the time he arrived in stone Canyon, he had amassed a sizable fortune. Didn't mean he hadn't married Naruto for his money, Itachi reminded himself. Some people never had enough.**

**After a while he opened his cell phone and punched out a familiar number. Shisui Uchiha answered on the first ring.**

**"I hope this call is to tell me that you've finally made some progress in Stone Canyon," Shisui said.**

**The low dark voice suited the man, Itachi thought. Shisui was a brooding loner. He was probably at his desk. He resembled some mad scientist. The anology was apt. Shisui Uchiha could trace his lineage straight back to the founder of the Konoha Society, Madara Uchiha the alchemist.**

**Like most men in the founder's long line, Shisui Uchiha was a strong sensitive. He was also uniquely qualified to head up a psychic investigation agency because his exotic paranormal abilities allowed him to discern patterns where others saw only randomness; conspiracy where others saw coincidence. He was invariably right. When Shisui sent his agents out to hunt, you could count on the fact that there was prey out there somewhere.**

**"There's been a new complication," Itachi said. "His name is Kyuubi Lancaster."**

**"Glazebrook's other son?" Shisui paused. "Hell. The probability guys told me he wasn't likely to show up."**

**"Well, he's here. I think it's safe to say he knows there's something not quite right about my story."**

**"Damn. You can't let him screw this thing up. There's too much riding on the project."**

**"He doesn't seem inclined to blow my cover," Itachi said. "Says he's used to the fact that everyone lies. In any event, he's scheduled to fly back to San Francisco day after tomorrow."**

**"Think you can control him until then?"**

**"I don't think anyone can control Kyuubi Lancaster," Itachi said. "At least not for long. But with luck he won't wreck the project. I called because I've got a question about him."**

**"What?"**

**"I came across a file that says he has applied for a position at Uchiha-Hyuuga on several occasions."**

**"Every six months, regular as clockwork. He's been persistent; I'll give him credit for that."**

**"Why does he get rejected?"**

**"Why the hell do you think?" Shisui said patiently. "Because he's a level-ten lie detector. Make that a level ten with an asterisk."**

**"Seems to me like someone with his talent might be very useful to a business like yours."**

**"Maybe. But not a ten. They're way too unstable. When his first application came in I had one of the analysts do some background research on other members with his kind of talent. Turns out there have only been a half-dozen or fewer in the entire history of the Society. Most of 'em were either extremely neurotic or downright crazy. Four committed suicide. It's a tough talent to handle."**

**"You rejected him because you thought he'd be unable to do the job?"**

**"This is an investigation agency, Itachi," Shisui pointed out drily. "You know as well as I do that in our business everybody lies—the clients, the suspects and the U-H agents. No level-ten-with-an-asterisk lie detector could last long under that kind of pressure. He would have been a risk to himself and others in the field."**

**"You may have underestimated him."**

**"It's possible, but I have to go with the possibilities," Shisui said philosophically. "Whatever you do, don't let him mess up your assignment."**

**"I'll see what I can do."**

****

**Hey readers, I'm back from the Inferno. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to get out of limbo-I totally lost my urge to write this. Now it is back!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_**For those who have read this before this is a whole new chapter! Read & Review ^.^**_

_**xXx**_

**Shisui Uchiha got up from behind the battered mahogany desk and went to stand at the window. He was always aware of the weight of Uchiha family history when he was in his office. The desk, like the distinctive glass-fronted bookcases and the Egyptian motif wall sconces, was in the Art Deco style. They had been among the original furnishings in the West Coast branch of Uchiha & Hyuuga when it opened for business in Los Angeles back in 1927. Eventually Jyuu-ken Hyuuga, one in a series of Hyuugas and Uchihas to head the branch, had made the decision to move the office to the secluded beachside town of Scargill Cove on the northern California coast in the late 1960s. Jyuu-ken had brought most of the L.A. furniture with him. When Shisui inherited the job, he kept everything, right down to the wall sconces.**

**Back in the 1960s, Scargill Cove had been a remote village populated by an eclectic group of hippies, New Age types, artists, craftspeople and others seeking refuge from the relentless forces of the modern world. A psychic detective agency fit right in with the rest of the neighborhood. Not much had changed in Scargill Cove over the years. It sometimes seemed to Shisui that the town was trapped in a time warp. That was one of the things he liked about it. He worked here alone, supervising his farflung team of part-time investigators, analysts and lab techs via the Internet and his cell phone. Once in a while he considered hiring an assistant but had yet to act on the notion.**

**He knew what Itachi and the others thought about his decision to run his empire from this hidden place on the coast. But he needed his privacy in ways the others could never understand. Virtually all the members of the Uchiha family were strong sensitives of one kind or another, but his particular talent was unique in the Uchiha line. No one else understood it. He didn't understand it himself most of the time. All he knew was that to do his best work, he needed the solitude and tranquility of Scargill Cove.**

**It was late. The fog-shrouded moon illuminated the looming outlines of the natural foods grocery, the craft galleries and a handful of other shops that composed the town's tiny commercial district. This was July but the windswept cove, with its slice of rocky beach and looming cliffs, attracted few tourists. Those who found their way into town never stayed long, primarily because there was very little in the way of lodging. The Scargill Cove Inn had only six rooms. Visitors hung around just long enough to browse the arts and crafts galleries. They left before sunset in search of accommodations and restaurants farther down the coast. Jyuuken Hyuuga, with his level-ten intuition, had sensed that Scargill Cove would stay undiscovered for a long, long time. He had been right.**

**Uchiha & Hyuuga was a family business with branches in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was founded in the aftermath of the First Akatsuki in the late 1800s. All the branches were headed by members of the Uchiha family who had descended from the alchemist founder, Madara Uchiha. Most of the time the firm's various offices were kept busy handling a wide range of security and investigative work for members of the Society and others in the general population who chose to seek the assistance of psychic detectives. But those in the Society who were aware of U&H's history understood that its primary client was the governing Council of the Konoha Society. As far as the Council was concerned, U&H's chief job was to protect the Society's most extraordinarily dangerous secret: the founder's original formula, Mangekyou was created by Madara Uchiha. In his private journals he claimed it could greatly enhance psychic abilities in those who possessed at least some traces of paranormal talent. Over the years the mangekyou had become just one more Konoha Society legend as far as most members were concerned. But the Uchiha family and the Council knew the truth. The formula had existed and it had worked. The para-enhancement elixir had also proved to be exceedingly dangerous, its effects wildly unpredictable. Those who had tried it had, indeed, developed frighteningly powerful psychic abilities. But they had also become obsessed with the drug. Inevitably the mangekyou had transformed its users into ruthless, psychically enhanced, highly unstable sociopaths.**

**Despite the risks, however, it seemed that in every generation some power-hungry sensitive came along who would stop at nothing to re-create the founder's formula. Whenever that happened it was understood that it was U&H's job to deal with the problem. In some instances, the person intent on obtaining the mangekyou was merely an unbalanced eccentric or someone who had become fixated on the legend of Madara Uchiha. Generally speaking such individuals did not get far before U&H stepped in to deal with the problem. But this latest situation was different. The information that had filtered in thus far suggested that they were dealing with a highly disciplined, carefully structured, utterly ruthless organization. In fact it had all the earmarks of a full-blown conspiracy along the lines of the First Akatsuki. The Akatsuki was another Konoha Society legend, and, like the story of the founder's formula, it was based on more than a nugget of truth. The original conspiracy formed in the late 1800s. Its goal was to take control of the Society and, using it as a base of power, to extend its tentacles into the highest levels of business and government in the UK.**

**The shadowy outlines of this new, modern conspiracy had been revealed over the past few months. At least two Konoha Society lab researchers had disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Their bodies had never been found. A month ago a technician who worked in an Konoha Society facility turned up dead. Just over two weeks later, a trusted informant was killed in a car crash. In addition, Shisui was certain that some of the Society's carefully guarded computer files had been hacked into by someone who was very good when it came to not leaving tracks. The new conspiracy appeared to be centered on the West Coast. That meant that he was in charge of stopping it. He had a dozen agents working on various leads but he desperately needed a break. His best hope at the moment was Itachi.**

**The arrival of Kyuubi Lancaster was not a good thing.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Ch. 6**

**Kyuubi closed the lid of his laptop, got up from the chair and went to the balcony door. The slider did not want to move in its metal track. Eventually he was able to force it open. It made a harsh grating, grinding sound as it retreated, fighting him every inch of the way. He had a hunch the noise carried to the room next door. He went out onto the narrow balcony and stood looking down into the murky pool.**

**According to what he had just learned from his online search, Itachi Salter was exactly what he claimed to be: a successful pension-and-benefits consultant. He had found a few pieces and a brief profile on him in the financial press. There was also a small reference to a marriage that ended in divorce after less than a year.**

**He remembered the little frissons of energy that had whispered across the nape of his neck during the drive back to the Desert Dawn Motel. Unlike most people, Itachi didn't just tell lies. He was living a lie.**

**XxX**

**The cell phone rang just as Kyuubi emerged from the shower. He tried to wrap one of the paper-thin towels around himself and discovered that it wasn't long enough. He used it to dry a hand and picked up the phone.**

"**It's me," Naruto said. "Are you up for breakfast?"**

"**Sounds like a very good idea," Kyuubi said. "I'm a little hungry after my late-night swim."**

"**I heard about that. I'm pretty sure everyone at the party knows what happened. Saw what Ino did to your car, too. Dad said that Itachi took you back to the hotel last night."**

"**That's right."**

"**Look, since you don't have your car, why don't I drive out there to the airport and pick you up? We can have breakfast at one of the resorts on Camelback Road. Afterward I'll take you out to Stone Canyon so you can deal with the rental car situation."**

**Kyuubi surveyed the seedy-looking motel room. He really did not want Naruto seeing the Desert Dawn Motel. Itachi's reaction last night had been bad enough. His brother would be downright horrified.**

"**I can get a cab," he said quickly.**

"**Forget it. Let's see, it's seven-thirty now. Rush hour. Going to take a while to get out to the airport. See you in about an hour."**

**Kyuubi sighed. "I'm not at the airport."**

**There was a short, startled pause.**

**Naruto cleared his throat. "Uh, don't tell me you wound up at Itachi Salter's house last night?"**

"**No." Kyuubi felt the heat rise in his cheeks. "For Pete's sake, Naru, whatever made you think I went home with Itachi? I just met him. You know that."**

"**Okay, okay, take it easy," Naruto said. "I was just asking. Didn't mean to upset you."**

"**I'm not upset."**

"**Right. So, if you're not at Itachi's house and you're not at an airport hotel, just where the heck are you?"**

"**Things have been a little tight lately," Kyuubi said. "Let's just say that I'm staying at a budget establishment."**

"**Dad asked you to come down here to Arizona. Didn't he pay your way?"**

"**He offered," Kyuubi admitted.**

**Naruto groaned. "You, of course, turned him down. I swear, you're as stubborn as he is, you know that? All right, give me the address of this '**_**budget establishment**_**.'"**

**XxX**

"**It's a dump," Naruto declared.**

"**It's not a dump," Kyuubi said.**

"**It's a dump," Naruto repeated flatly.**

_**He had known Naruto would be horrified by the Desert Dawn Motel**_**, Kyuubi reminded himself. The only hope was to try to change the subject.**

**They were eating breakfast on the outdoor dining terrace of one of the luxurious golf course resorts near Scottsdale. The tiered swimming pools and the unnaturally green expanse of the course beyond gave an illusion of balmy comfort. In reality, although it was only eight forty-five in the morning, the heat was building fast. It would have been uncomfortable sitting outside had it not been for the awning, the overhead fans and the misters that spewed forth a cloud of tiny water drops that evaporated almost immediately.**

"**Are you sure I can't convince you to stay at Mom and Dad's place?" Naruto asked one more time.**

"**No," Kyuubi said.**

"**I'll be there, don't forget."**

"**It wouldn't be fair to Tyrra. I cause her enough stress as it is."**

**Naruto made a face, acknowledging the truth of that statement without words.**

"**Stop worrying," Kyuubi said. "I'm fine where I am. I'll only be in town for one more night, anyway. No big deal."**

**The waiter appeared, bearing a cup and saucer.**

"**Your green tea," he said to Kyuubi.**

**Kyuubi looked at the bag perched on the saucer. The tea was a generic brand, and he was pretty sure the water was going to be lukewarm.**

"**Thank you," he said. He unwrapped the little bag and lowered it into the cup.**

**He had been right about the water.**

**Naruto chuckled. "You ought to know better than to order green tea in Arizona. This is coffee country."**

"**Unlike the Desert Dawn Motel, this is a high-end resort that caters to affluent travelers from around the world. You'd think they would be able to provide a decent cup of tea."**

"**You remind me of Itachi. He's the only other person I know who drinks tea. I think he likes the green stuff, too."**

**Kyuubi pondered that while he dunked the tea bag up and down in a desperate effort to extract some flavor and caffeine.**

"**What do you think of him?" he asked.**

"**Itachi?" Naruto raised one shoulder in an elegant little shrug. "He seems nice enough. He must be competent or Dad wouldn't have hired him."**

"**Do consultants always get invited to Glazebrook cocktail parties?"**

"**It's not so unusual." Naruto forked up a bite of his eggs Benedict. "Dad has always made it a practice to invite his upper management team to social functions. He gives them memberships at the Stone Canyon Country Club, too."**

"**But Itachi is an outside consultant, not a vice president."**

"**Dad wants him treated with respect at the office," Naruto said****. "That means he has to get the perks of upper management."**

"**I suppose that makes sense."**

**Naruto smiled. "What's with the curiosity about Itachi Salter?"**

"**I'm not sure, to be honest," Kyuubi said. "He just struck me as a bit unusual, that's all."**

_**Talk about a bald-faced lie**_**. Itachi wasn't just a bit unusual. He was off the charts, at least as far as he was concerned. No other man had stirred the hair on the nape of his neck or aroused his instincts the way he had last night.**

"**That's funny," Naruto said. "Itachi always strikes me as being just what he is. A pleasant, somewhat dull business consultant."**

_**Were they talking about the same man? **_**Kyuubi wondered.**

"**He's registered with the Society, you know," he said.**

"**Yes." Naruto stirred his coffee. "But what's so odd about that? It's not surprising that Dad would look for a sensitive when he decided to employ a consultant."**

"**No," Kyuubi agreed.**

"**My understanding is that Itachi is a mid-range talent. Maybe a level five or six. No more."**

**Kyuubi went still.**

"**What?" Naruto's brows rose. "Don't tell me he hit on you last night?"**

"**No."**

**He did a quick rerun of his conversation with Itachi. It occurred to him that he had never actually mentioned his level of sensitivity. He had just assumed it was very high; no, he had known that it was high with every intuitive fiber of his being.**

_**What was going on here? Were his instincts that far off or had Itachi lied to Arashi and the rest of the Glazebrooks about the strength of his psychic abilities? If so, why? Maybe he thought it would make things awkward for him, Kyu reflected. Heaven knew his high Jones number had never served him well, socially or in his career. **_**Members of the Society, who understood the significance of it, tended to put some distance between him and themselves. It wasn't uncommon for people to feel uncomfortable around level-ten sensitives of any kind. Then, too, there were always those at the opposite extreme who were attracted to power in a sick kind of way. Upon reflection he had to admit that advertising a high-level talent could complicate Itachi's professional life.**

_**Give the man a break**_**, he thought. Itachi had a right to his privacy.**

"**You were correct about Ino Czar," Kyuubi said to change the subject. "She's got a serious drinking problem."**

"**Yes, and it's getting worse. Ino always liked her cocktails but after Kabuto was killed she really started to hit the bottle. Poor Owen. I think he's at his wit's end. Mom said he talked to her about putting Ino in rehab."**

"**Did she encourage him to do that?"**

"**Of course. But it's easier said than done. Ino won't even discuss her problems. If she doesn't quit the heavy drinking, I think Owen will probably divorce her."**

"**Who could blame him?" Kyuubi said quietly. "But I'm not sure Ino will find what she needs in a rehab clinic, even one run by the Society. She's a mother who lost a son to an act of violence, and as far as she's concerned, justice has not been done. I doubt if that kind of thing can be resolved with a twelve-step program."**

"**As far as I'm concerned, justice was done," Naruto said, abruptly fierce. "I just wish Ino knew what a bastard Kabuto really was. I wish the whole world realized it, not just you and me."**

"**How do you tell a mother that her dead son was a sociopath? Your own parents wouldn't even believe it when you tried to explain to them that you had married a handsome monster. Arashi and Tyrra thought you were having some sort of mental breakdown."**

"**Kabuto could be unbelievably convincing." The fork in Naruto's hand trembled a little. "He always had evidence of my craziness to show people. He was even able to convince Dr. Mitokado that I was a nutcase."**

"**The creep really did a number on you. All that stuff about how you were suffering fugue states during which you tried to kill yourself. It was like something out of a horror film." **

**Naruto made a face. "He seemed so perfect at the beginning. It gives me chills every time I realize how wrong I was about him."**

"**Don't blame yourself," Kyuubi said. "You weren't the only one who thought he was wonderful. Arashi and Tyrra and Ryou and all your friends bought into his phony persona, too."**

"**I honestly believe that I would have been dead by now if it hadn't been for you, Kyuubi." Tears glittered in Naruto's eyes. "And the worst part is that everyone except you would have been convinced that I committed suicide."**

**Kyuubi touched his arm. "It's all right. It's over. Kabuto is the one who is dead. That's all that matters."**

"**Yes." Naruto dabbed at his eyes with his napkin. "He's gone. That's the important thing. But no one realizes how evil he truly was. I just wish we could find a way to let everyone know the truth. After the funeral, the more I tried to talk about the situation, the more Mom and Dad tried to make me keep quiet."**

"**In their defense, I'm sure they think it's best for all concerned if the whole thing just goes away. Murder in the family is never good for business, let alone your social life."**

"**It's more than that," Naruto replied. "I think Mom's afraid that everyone in Stone Canyon secretly believes I'm unstable. She's worried that I won't be able to find another husband."**

**Kyuubi smiled. "Are you looking for one?"**

"**No." Naruto shuddered. "It's going to be a long time before I even think about marriage again, if ever."**

"**You'll get past what Kabuto did to you," Kyuubi said. "You just need a little time."**

**Naruto put his fork down. "Actually I'm more concerned about you than I am about myself. You paid a very high price for rescuing me from Kabuto. First you got dumped by your fiancé and then you got fired. We both know it was because of the gossip that went around after the murder."**

"**What the heck." Kyuubi reached for the small blue ceramic pot that contained salsa. "Screw 'em if they can't take a joke."**

**He concentrated on spooning salsa over his scrambled eggs. It took him a couple seconds to realize that Naruto was staring at him.**

**Kyuubi looked up. "What?"**

**Naruto shook his head and then, unexpectedly, started to giggle. The giggles turned into laughter. He clapped a hand across his mouth in a vain attempt to stem the tide.**

**Kyuubi ate his spiced-up eggs, waiting for Naruto to get himself back under control.**

**Eventually Naruto sobered and reached for his coffee cup. "Thanks, bro, I needed a good laugh."**

"**Happy to be of service."**

**Naruto tipped his head to the side. "Are you really that laid back about what happened to your career and engagement?"**

"**I wasn't at the time but in hindsight, it did not turn out to be the end of the world. As far as the engagement goes, I was having a few doubts anyway. I don't think Idate and I would have made it for the long haul."**

"**I agree. You didn't even feel that you could confide in him about the paranormal side of your nature."**

"**That was certainly part of the problem."**

"**You couldn't have kept that secret forever. Sooner or later it would have come out and Idate probably would have assumed that you were delusional. That's how most nonsensitives react when told that someone has psychic abilities."**

"**True." Kyuubi hesitated, thinking. "But there was another aspect of our relationship that was starting to worry me, too."**

"**What?"**

"**In the whole time we were together we never had a single fight."**

"**What's wrong with that?"**

"**I'm not sure," Kyuubi admitted. "But it started to get irritating. We always did what I wanted to do. I made all the decisions. I picked the restaurants where we ate. I chose the shows. He always let me set the pace in bed. It got old."**

"**Whoa, whoa, whoa."Naruto waved his hand in Kyuubi's face. "Back up to the part where he always let you set the pace in bed. I thought that was one of the things you liked about him. You told me you appreciated the fact that he let you control things in that department."**

"**Sometimes you just want someone else to take charge for a while."**

"**Really?"Naruto smiled knowingly. "And just when did you come to that little epiphany?"**

"**I don't know," Kyuubi admitted. "The thing is, I could only allow someone else to take charge if I trusted him completely."**

"**You will recall that I did warn you that it was probably a mistake for someone with your level of talent to marry someone who could never in a million years understand your true nature," Naruto said.**

"**It seemed like a good idea at the time," Kyuubi said.**

"**Famous last words."**

"**In fairness to Idate, my paranormal issues aside, I'm just not the type who can hand over the reins to someone else."**

"**You can say that again."Naruto chuckled. "In your case I think someone will have to come along who is strong enough to take the reins away from you."**

**Kyuubi winced. "Not sure I like the sound of that."**

"**See? You're resisting the very thing you say you want. That control streak in your personality probably goes with your level-ten trust issues."**

"**Probably. Catch twenty-two, I guess."**

**Naruto sobered. "Well, I for one will always be profoundly grateful for your particular talent. I don't want to think about what would have happened if you hadn't seen through Kabuto's wall of lies."**

"**Luckily we don't have to worry about Kabuto anymore."**

"**Thank heavens,"Naruto said. "But I'm starting to get concerned about Ino Czar."**

"**I think it was seeing me last night that set her off. Once I'm out of town, she'll calm down."**

"**I'm not so sure of that. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to find out that she's the one who picked up the phone and spread the gossip that got you fired and caused Idate to end your engagement."**

"**I wouldn't dream of arguing with your intuition," Kyuubi said. "You may be right that Ino got me fired from the Draper Trust. But I don't know for certain that it was the rumors about my connection to Kabuto's murder that caused Idate to dump me."**

"**Hah. You asked him why he was ending things, remember?"**

"**Yes," Kyuubi admitted.**

"**And what did he do?"**

"**He told me there was someone else."**

"**Which was?"**

"**A lie," Kyuubi said.**

"**I rest my case."**

**xXx**

**Review Please! ^.^**


	8. Chapter 7Making up for Past Mistakes

**Ch.7**

**xXx**

**_Sorry for the wait I thought I had already uploaded this chapter-so I was working on ch. 8. But then I checked back -had a wtf moment- so here is the story! ^.^_**

**_xXx_**

**The voice mail message from Itachi was waiting for Kyuubi when he turned on his cell phone after leaving the resort restaurant. It was brief and to the point.**

"**This is Itachi. When you're ready to pick up your car let me know. I'll come and get you and take you out to Stone Canyon."**

**Kyuubi punched the key to erase the message. "Talk about a take-charge type," he said. "I think Itachi Salter could give me lessons."**

**Naruto pulled dark glasses out of his purse. "What was that all about?"**

"**He just left me a message telling me, not asking, mind you, telling me that he will come and pick me up and take me back to Stone Canyon."**

"**I'm sure he was just trying to be helpful."**

"**Oh, yeah."**

"**I sense undercurrents," Naruto said.**

"**So do I," Kyuubi said. He put on his own dark glasses. "But darned if I have any idea what's going on."**

**They waited while the parking attendant brought Naruto's Mercedes around. When it arrived Naruto slipped behind the wheel. Kyuubi got in beside him.**

"**For what it's worth," Naruto said, driving out of the resort and onto Camelback Road, "I really don't think you need to worry too much about Itachi Salter. Dad trusts him and that says a lot."**

"**Can't argue with that," Kyuubi said. "Are you sure you don't mind running me out to the house?"**

"**No problem. I don't have any appointments until this afternoon. Are you bound and determined to fly back to San Francisco tomorrow?"**

"**That's the current plan."**

"**Well, if you change your mind and stay over another day or two, I'm free tomorrow afternoon. We could go to the spa."**

"**Thanks, Naru, but I wasn't kidding when I told you that my budget is very tight at the moment."**

"**My treat."**

"**I really don't—"**

"**Oh, for pity's sake. This is me, your brother, remember? I'm not Dad. It's okay to let me treat you to anafternoon at the spa."**

"**We'll see," Kyuubi said.**

**xXx**

**The compact was waiting precisely where Itachi had left it in the otherwise empty driveway in front of the Glazebrook house. The fractured windshield glittered in the hot sun.**

**Kyuubi got out of the car, hitching his bag over his shoulder. He leaned down to look back at Naruto.**

"**Thanks," he said.**

"**Call me when you find out whether or not you'll be staying for another day or two."**

"**I will."**

**Kyuubi closed the door. Naruto drove back down the driveway.**

**The front door of the big house opened. Arashi came out onto the veranda.**

"**Thought Itachi was going to bring you back here this morning," he said without preamble.**

"**Naruto and I had breakfast. He offered me a lift. It was more convenient. I called the rental company on the way here. They're going to deliver a replacement car and send a tow truck for this one. They said the new car will be here in about an hour."**

"**Good. Too hot to sit out by the pool. Let's go inside."**

"**I thought you would be at the office by now."**

"**Been waiting for you."**

**Might as well find out what this is all about, Kyuubi thought. He tightened his grip on his bag and walked toward the veranda.**

"**Sorry about Ino last night," Arashi said gruffly. "She's got a problem with the booze these days."**

"**I noticed."**

**He followed him warily into the house.**

"**Where's Tyrra?" he asked.**

"**There's a meeting of the board of directors of the Arts Academy this morning. She's the president."**

"**I see."**

**They sat opposite each other on two leather chairs facing the view of the pool and the mountains. The housekeeper brought iced tea.**

"**I'll get right to the point," Arashi said. "I know you've had trouble finding a new job."**

"**Something will turn up sooner or later," he said, stirring his iced tea with the long swizzle stick.**

"**Like what?"**

"**Well, I hear there are a lot of opportunities selling time-shares in Las Vegas."**

"**I'm asking you a serious question, damn it."**

**He hesitated and then gave a mental shrug. "I'm thinking of opening my own business."**

**Arashi frowned. "What the devil do you know about running a business?"**

"**Not much." He smiled blandly. "But it sounds like fun so I thought, what the heck, why not give it a whirl?"**

**Arashi narrowed his eyes. "Do you always have to be so damned sarcastic?"**

"**No. I only get that way when I'm feeling pressured."**

**Arashi settled deeper into his chair. "Look, I know that the reason you lost your job and your fiancé was probably the gossip that went around after Kabuto got killed."**

"**It didn't help, that's for sure."**

"**Figured the rumors would die down fairly quickly, to tell you the truth."**

"**So did I," Kyu admitted. "But it doesn't seem to be working out that way."**

"**That's why I want to offer you a job," Arashi said.**

**He choked on his iced tea. It took a minute to catch his breath.**

"**No thanks," he said automatically.**

"**Hell, I knew you were going to say that. So damned stubborn."**

**He set his half-finished iced tea on the coffee table. "Maybe I should go now."**

"**Hear me out first. It's the least you can do."**

**He smiled a little at that. "The least I can do?"**

"**You're my son, damn it. Not my fault I didn't know you existed until a few months ago. Your mother had no right to keep that secret from me."**

"**She thought she was doing what was best for everyone concerned."**

"**Yeah, well, she was wrong."**

**Kyuubi exhaled slowly. "I didn't come here to argue about a decision that was made more than three decades ago and over which I had no control."**

**Anger and frustration flashed across Arashi's face. "Why did you come, in that case?"**

"**Mom insisted."**

**Arashi grimaced. "Should have guessed."**

"**Maybe we should change the subject."**

"**Fine by me," Arashi said grimly. "Here's the deal. I'm thinking of setting up a charitable foundation and I want you to take charge of it."**

**He was too flabbergasted to respond. He just sat there, staring at him.**

"**Well?" Arashi said, scowling. "What do you have to say about my offer?"**

"**I think," Kyu said, spacing each word with exacting precision, "that setting up a charitable foundation is a terrific idea. You've got more money than any one human being needs. You could do a lot of good with it."**

**Arashi seemed satisfied. "Right."**

"**I'm sure you're aware that foundations require large endowments."**

"**I'm not stupid, Kyuubi."**

"**Really, really big endowments," he emphasized. "The kind that can have a serious impact on what is left over for your heirs."**

**For the first time Arashi seemed amused. "Starting to worry about your inheritance, after all? I thought you told me you weren't interested in my money."**

"**Now who's being sarcastic?"**

**He made an obvious bid for patience. "Yes, Kyuubi, I'm aware that setting up a well-endowed foundation will cut into the inheritance I plan to leave for my heirs. Don't worry about it. There will be plenty left over for themand for any children they might have. Ryou will take the company into the future and make even more money for the next several generations. Trust me, I can afford to fire up a foundation."**

"**Have you discussed this with Tyrra?"**

"**No. I talked it over with Owen but I asked him to keep quiet about it until I had a chance to discuss it with you."**

"**Why the secrecy?" Kyuubi asked, opening his parasenses cautiously.**

"**Because I wanted to get you on board first."**

**The pulse of truth reverberated in the words.**

"**You're not planning to set up this foundation of yours just so you can give me a job, are you?" he asked.**

"**It's something I've been thinking about for a while."**

**Not an outright lie, he decided. But Arashi was not telling the whole truth, either.**

"**Since when?" he asked.**

**Arashi's mouth twitched a little. "You're the skeptical type, aren't you?"**

"**I have trust issues."**

"**The idea came to me a few months back."**

"**Right after you found out that I got fired from my job at the Draper Trust and it became obvious I was having trouble finding a new position?"**

**Arashi moved one hand negligently. "I'm not saying that there was no connection. I'm telling you that it all came together in my head a few months ago."**

"**Far be it from me to discourage you from giving away some of your money but I honestly don't think it would be a good idea to put me at the head of your new foundation."**

"**Why the hell not?"**

"**Well, for starters, you'd want to be in charge," Kyuubi said. "My ultimate goal has always been to be my own boss."**

"**I'd give you your head. It's not like you haven't had plenty of experience in the field. You'll know what you're doing."**

"**Let's not kid each other, Arashi. We both know that you've dedicated your life to building your empire. You'll certainly want the final word when it comes to deciding who gets your money and what they spend it on."**

**He snorted. "Well, it would be my foundation, after all. I ought to have some say in where the money goes."**

**Kyuubi picked up his tea. "I agree."**

"**Doesn't mean you wouldn't be in charge."**

"**Yes," he said. "It means exactly that."**

**Annoyance hardened Arashi's sun-weathered face. "Doesn't look to me like you're going to get a better offer anywhere else."**

**Kyuubi's stomach knotted. "Please don't tell me you're the one who's been calling every potential employer I've contacted in the past six months and warning them not to hire me."**

"**Hell, no." Arashi slammed his hand flat on the table. "You really think I'd do something low-down and nasty like that just to get my way?"**

"**If it was sufficiently important to you, yes."**

**For a few seconds Kyuubi thought he was going to explode. Then he heaved a heavy sigh. "Your mother told you a little about me, huh?" he said.**

"**She said you could be ruthless. At least you were in the old days."**

"**You don't build the kind of company Owen and I built unless you're willing to play hardball."**

"**I don't doubt that for a minute."**

"**I did what I had to do," Arashi said. "But I had my own rules and I stuck by them. As God is my witness, I never took advantage of anyone who was weaker than me or anyone who didn't know how to play the game."**

**He was telling the truth, Kyuubi decided.**

"**That sounds fair enough to me," he said quietly. "But you have to admit those rules do leave some wiggle room."**

"**Won't argue with that. But I didn't use that wiggle room to call up people in San Francisco to tell them not to hire you."**

"**Okay. I believe you."**

**He looked at him. "Be reasonable, Kyuubi. It doesn't look like you're going to get a better offer anywhere else."**

"**I know. That's why I'm thinking about setting up my own business."**

"**Why did you get into the charitable foundation field?"**

"**It wasn't my first choice, but I have to admit that it turned out to be a reasonably satisfying alternative." he paused. "At least until recently."**

"**What was your first choice?"**

**Kyuubi hesitated and then decided there was no harm in telling him the truth. "For the past several years, I've dreamed of going to work for Uchiha & Hyuuga."**

**Arashi was clearly taken aback. "Your goal was to become a psychic investigator for J&J?"**

"**I thought it would be exciting and a perfect way to use my talents. I've sent in applications to the West Coast office every six months for the past few years."**

"**No luck, I take it."**

"**The dumbass who heads up the regional office, Shisui Uchiha, always rejects my applications."**

**Arashi blinked. "Dumbass?"**

"**I assume that is an appropriate description because he is obviously too dumb to realize how much I could contribute to U-H."**

"**I see."**

"**Every time I apply, I get a letter informing me that there is no position available. Doesn't take a human lie detector to know that's a bunch of bull. Shisui Uchiha has decided my sensitive nature is too delicate for the work."**

"**How do you use your talent in the philanthropy field?"**

"**Lots of frauds and scammers out there who will go to any lengths to get their hands on a foundation's money. It just so happens that I am uniquely qualified to detect frauds and scammers. Until six months ago that's what I did for my employers."**

**Arashi turned thoughtful. "Must have been tough all these years, living with that lie detector talent of yours, though."**

"**Mom and Aunt Nala saw to it that I got some help from a really insightful parapsychologist. Dr. Yakushi helped me figure out how to control my sensitivities."**

"**That fiancé of yours. Was he a member of the Society or a sensitive?"**

"**No."**

"**He ever figure out that there was something a little different about you?"**

"**I don't think so," Kyuubi said. "At least not in the way you mean."**

"**You're better off without him, then. Anyone as strong as you would have been miserable with a nonsensitive."**

**Kyuubi said nothing. Given that it was unlikely he would ever find a sensitive who was willing to risk marriage with her, there didn't seem to be much to say.**

"**What makes you so damn sure we couldn't work together on my foundation?" Arashi asked after a while.**

"**Intuition." he paused a beat. "Arashi, if you're making the offer because you feel guilty about the past, forget it. It's not your fault you didn't know I existed."**

"**Yes," he said. "It is."**

**Startled, Kyuubi looked at him. "Why do you say that? Mom told me that she quit her job and left Arizona forty-eight hours after the two of you had your one-night stand. She said she never contacted you again."**

"**I should have checked up on her," Arashi said. "Made sure she was all right. But the truth was, her quitting like that made my life a whole hell of a lot simpler. I had enough problems on my plate at the time. I concentrated on dealing with them."**

"**What kind of problems?"**

"**The company was going through a bad patch. Tyrra and I were having trouble. By the time I had my head above water again a year or so had gone by."**

"**So you concentrated on the future, not the past."**

"**I don't look back too often," Arashi said. "Not my way. I told myself that it was highly unlikely your mother got pregnant that one time and that if she did, I sure as hell would have heard from her. Most women in her situation would have come looking for the kid's inheritance. And she'd have had every right to do just that."**

"**Mom's a very proud and independent woman."**

"**I remember." Arashi smiled wryly. "Probably why I was attracted to her. That and the fact that she was a hell of an accountant. At any rate, she never got in touch after she left so I figured that was the end of it."**

"**What's done is done. I understand and accept that you feel some responsibility to take care of me financially. I respect that. I appreciate it. But it's not necessary. I can take care of myself."**

"**I never said you couldn't. But what the hell is wrong with taking a job from me?"**

**Kyuubi heard a car in the drive. "That will be the guy from the rental car company."**

"**You didn't answer my question."**

**He collected his bag and stood. "It wouldn't work."**

**Arashi got up and faced him. "Before you run off, give me your word that you'll at least think about taking the position I'm offering."**

"**It's not a good idea. Trust me."**

"**I hit you with it cold today. You haven't had a chance to give it serious consideration."**

"**I don't think—"**

"**Forty-eight hours," he said, cutting in swiftly. "And stay here in Phoenix while you're thinking about it. Is that too much to ask?"**

"**Why do I have to stay here while I'm mulling over your offer?"**

"**Because if you go back to San Francisco you'll find it easier to say no," he said. "Besides, like it or not, I'm your father. You owe me some consideration."**

**Kyuubi smiled in spite of himself. "Never let the client walk away on a no, right?Congratulations. You get an A in Business Psychology one-oh-one."**

**For the first time Arashi's eyes gleamed with amusement. He grinned. "Honey, I've been doing deals since before you were born."**

**Kyuubi realized he had just caught a glimpse of the Arashi Glazebrook his mother had known. Three decades ago he would have been hard for anyone to resist.**

**He hesitated. It was a mistake.**

"**Forty-eight hours," Arashi urged softly. "That's all I'm asking. As long as you've come all the way down here, you'll want to spend some time with Naruto, anyway. Just give me a couple of days to show you some of my ideas for the foundation."**

"**You're serious about establishing one, aren't you?"**

"**Yes."**

"**All right," Kyuubi said. "I'll stay a couple of days. You can show me some of your plans. But I am making no commitments. Is that understood?"**

"**Understood."**

"**Good-bye, Arashi."**

**A few minutes later he was behind the wheel of the replacement compact. On the way down the drive he glanced in the rearview mirror a couple times, contemplating the sight of the big house where his brothers had grown up.**

**XxX**

**Arashi watched the little compact turn onto the main road. All his life he'd known exactly where he was going, he thought. His goals had been clear: money, success, power, the woman he loved and heirs to whom he could leave what he had built. He had acquired everything he set out to get, never questioning any of the decisions he had made along the way.**

**He was not proud of some of the things he had done in the past but what the hell. He wasn't a saint. Saints didn't put together financial empires. Saints usually came to bad ends.**

**He went back inside and stood looking out at the pool. As he had told Kyuubi, it was not his habit to contemplate the past. He got through life by staying focused on the future. But he could no longer pretend that what he had come to think of as his Lost Year had never taken place.**

**He had been married to Tyrra for two years when the company he and Owen had worked so hard to get off the ground started to implode. The economy went south. Business was almost nonexistent. Bankruptcy loomed.**

**Tyrra's father, the senator, who had been dubious about the marriage from the start, was dropping heavy hints to his daughter about the wisdom of divorce.**

**To make matters worse, Tyrra had been upset when he told her he wanted to wait until the company was on its feet before they started a family. She became cold and withdrawn in bed. He was pretty sure she had begun to turn to Owen for sympathy and understanding.**

**Tyrra had dated Owen before he succeeded in sweeping her off her feet. When things turned bad, he wondered if she regretted her decision.**

**Somewhere in the midst of that jumble of impending disasters, he had found himself on a business trip with his young, attractive head of accounting, Gwendolyn Lancaster. Gwendolyn was a strong parasensitive with a talent for finding the patterns in financial data that eluded most people. She was the reason he was on the business trip. Gwendolyn had located a possible contract opportunity. If they moved fast and if Arashi could convince the client to go with Glazebrook, Inc., it might be possible to avoid going off a financial cliff.**

**Arashi had closed the deal, dazzling a reluctant client with a strategy for developing a high-end shopping mall.**

**That evening, alone together in the restaurant of the cheap hotel where they were staying, he and Gwendolyn had toasted the future of Glazebrook, Inc. One toast led to another and before he realized it, he ended up telling Gwendolyn that he was pretty sure his marriage was falling apart. Gwendolyn commiserated with him. They wound up in bed together.**

**In the morning Gwendolyn realized the enormity of the mistake even before he did.**

"**You called out her name," Gwendolyn said, looking at him in the cracked mirror over the dressing table as she put on an earring. She smiled wistfully. "You love her. You will always love her. Go back to her."**

"**What about you?" he said, feeling helpless.**

"**I'm handing in my resignation, effective immediately." She put on the other earring. "I can't stay with Glazebrook now. We both know that."**

**She rented a car and drove back to Phoenix rather than fly back on the same plane with him. He never saw her again, although he knew she had returned to her office long enough to clean out her desk. He heard through the rumor mill that she went to San Francisco to stay with an aunt while she hunted for a new job. He'd had no concerns about her finding a good position. Her talent for accounting was, after all, preternatural.**

**Tyrra had known the moment he returned what had happened, of course. She was a member of the Konoha Society, too, although she preferred to ignore that fact as much as possible. Her father, the senator, had been strict on that subject. He had taught his family that their connection to a group of people who actually believed in the paranormal had to be kept a deep, dark secret. Voters tended to be wary of politicians who claimed to possess psychic powers.**

**Tyrra had immediately made his worst nightmare come true. She filed for divorce. He spent the next several months crawling on his knees while simultaneously trying to kill the pain with work on the shopping mallproject.**

**In the end Tyrra relented and came back to him. After the divorce was final, of course. She wanted to make her point.**

**They remarried, and nine months later Naruto was born. At about the same time the shopping mall project was completed on time and on budget. Glazebrook, Inc., was off and running, a fierce competitor in the highstakes world of Southwest commercial real estate development.**

**He never looked back.**

**Until eight months ago that policy had served him well. But sometimes the past returns to slap you upside the head with a two-by-four.**

_**XxX**_

_**So tell me how it is so far. Read & Review. Plus I would like to say THANK YOU for reviewing to KyouyaxCloud**_


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